


It's Too Bad He Won't Live, But Then Again, Who Does?

by Reis_Asher



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Blade Runner Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kissing, M/M, Redemption, background traci/traci's girlfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 20:52:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18018233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reis_Asher/pseuds/Reis_Asher
Summary: Blade Runner AU.Blade Runner Henry "Hank" Anderson has tracked the last of the Nexus 6 replicants - a pleasure model known as Traci and her girlfriend Pris - to an abandoned building and sets out to retire them.Little do they know he's hiding a replicant prototype named Connor in his apartment, and what he sees during the last battle with Traci will encourage him to give up his career and go on the run with the replicant he's fallen in love with.





	It's Too Bad He Won't Live, But Then Again, Who Does?

**Author's Note:**

> A tribute to my favorite movie of all time. Enjoy this Blade Runner AU, based on the Tears In Rain and the final scene.
> 
> If you know the movie, you know what's coming in terms of content. I haven't deviated (ha ha) much from it, just enough to get that good old Detroit stuff in there.

Blade Runner Henry "Hank" Anderson clung to the steel girder, his grip slipping on the wet surface as the blue-haired Nexus 6 known as "Traci" loomed over him, blue blood mingling with the rain on her cheeks and dripping from her nose. Hank knew this was it—that this desperate fight for survival would end in both their deaths—and for what? Traci was going to die anyway, her lifespan inhibited by the 4-year expiration date all replicants possessed. Even the nail in her hand could only buy her a few more minutes, but perhaps that was all she needed to avenge her girlfriend Pris. Their fight had been one for the ages, an epic struggle of life and death as Hank had fought to retire the last rogue replicant.

Hank gasped as Traci jumped across to where he was hanging on for dear life, clutching a dove in her hand. He coughed, the metallic tang of blood fresh in his mouth as she looked down at him, something between judgement and curiosity in her gaze as she regarded Hank like a human might look down on an ant. Or perhaps what she was trying to project was pity. Either way, it was as unwelcome as the damp hair clinging to Hank's cheeks and the cold droplets of water running down his neck. His woolen coat was torn from their struggle, his striped shirt covered in sweat, dirt and blood.

"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is, to be a slave." Traci smiled, and Hank knew these would be the last words he would ever hear. He'd never see Connor's sweet face again, never taste those lips like he had before when Connor had come to him fearful and uncertain of who and what he was. What would become of him, if Hank died here? The sweet replicant would never survive alone in a world desperate to hunt him down. He could never go to the lengths Traci had in order to survive.

Hank lost his grip and fell, barely registering the tight fingers around his wrist. His fingers strained for purchase as he was hauled up onto the rooftop and deposited on the ground like a sack of potatoes. He weighed nothing to the replicant, even as she was dying. Hank backed up, crawling across the rain-slick surface until his back hit something firm. He wondered if this was another part of the Traci's game of revenge and she had saved him only to make him suffer more. He saw red-haired Pris in his mind's eye, her horrifying death as she shrieked and flailed like a doll spilling out blue blood as she fell still for the last time. All he could muster was grim regret. Retirement felt like an ugly word, now, a cover for murder rather than the pacification of a threat he had always seen it as. He was going to retire after this. It was about time he stopped blaming his son's death on replicants.

Traci sat down before him, the dove cradled in her hand, and Hank wondered if she was going to snap the delicate bird's neck. He suspected the bird might be real, not one of the android models that had been released into the wild after the real ones had been forced to the brink of extinction. Instead, she petted it, stroking its white feathers with her thirium-stained hand as she looked up at Hank. The Voight-Kampff test obviously couldn't predict empathy, or perhaps Traci had learned it out here, losing her friends and her lover to Hank's gun.

Hank realized with a flash of mingled horror and joy that he was witnessing the Traci's redemption. She had chosen to save him rather than let him die, even though she could have let him fall. But for what purpose?

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe," Traci said, a wry smile on her face as the rain beat down on her ragged hair. The words 'Eden Club' were still visible on the elastic band of her dirty sports bra. "Pris's face as I saw her for the first time in real sunlight. I watched Markus fight riot police and die like a martyr, falling to the ground as his thirium stained the snow. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain." She looked up at Hank, that smile present even though she was clearly moments from death. Her head slumped, and the captive bird fluttered away as she lost her grip on it.

Hank sat, blood trickling down his brow, eyes wide as he realized the full extent of what he'd done. Traci had saved him so he could witness her last moments, so that he might bear witness to some of the things she'd seen and she might live on, somehow, through Hank. 

The replicants were alive, and he'd hunted them down and murdered them one by one. They were living beings with free will and rights, and Connor was one of them. He'd be retired too if Hank didn't do something to protect him.

He wasn't going to let that happen.

***

Hank entered his apartment, his pistol in hand. It was quiet, too quiet, and he sensed an ambush. What if they knew he was hiding Connor? He quietly tiptoed through the shadowy room to the bed where Connor lay, but he couldn't see his face beneath the sheet that lay over him. He gently lifted it with the same hand holding his gun, fearing Connor was dead as he saw that beautiful, perfect face frozen in a look of absolute serenity. He rested his cheek next to Connor's and let out a gasp of relief, squeezing his eyes shut to contain his tears when he caught the sound of Connor's simulated breathing. He kissed Connor on the cheek, warmth welling inside him as the replicant stirred and rolled over to look up at him. He thought he'd never seen anything as beautiful in his life as this precious boy who lay naked before him.

"Do you love me?" Hank asked, cradling Connor's head in his bandaged hands.

"I love you," Connor replied, his voice soft and gentle.

"Do you trust me?" Hank asked, stroking the soft hair at Connor's temples, knowing he was about to throw away his entire career as a Blade Runner to save this replicant. To save Connor.

"I trust you."

Hank leaned in for a kiss, claiming Connor's lips softly in the gloom, and was grateful to feel Connor's lips caressing his, his mouth opening to allow his tongue access. Traci and the others had died, but their deaths wouldn't be in vain. Connor was going to live, this prototype replicant with an uncertain lifespan his to love for as many precious moments as they could salvage together.

Hank walked to the door of his apartment and pulled it open as Connor dressed. Connor appeared behind him in his suit, his tie discarded in favor of leaving his top shirt buttons open. Hank gestured for him to wait with a raised hand as he stepped out into the hallway, gun raised as he checked the coast was clear. He beckoned Connor forward and Connor rushed into the elevator. Hank was about to follow him when he saw a paper unicorn lying on the ground. He reached down and picked it up, remembering a dream he'd once had.

_"It's too bad he won't live, but then again, who does?"_ The words echoed in Hank's mind and he nodded, crushing the paper unicorn in his hand as he stepped into the elevator with Connor to face an uncertain future on the run with the man he loved.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think. I've never done any crossover/AU stuff really, so this is new ground for me. I'd love to hear you thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @landale


End file.
